Lawyers across Pakistan boycotted courts July 18, the day after a bomb attack on an anti-government rally by attorneys in Islamabad killed 15 people. Gen Musharraf strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" and called for calm, but lawyers called the blast an attempt to disrupt their opposition movement. Ousted chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was due to attend the rally. He arrived two hours after the blast, Justice Chaudhry visited the venue of the rally where he led brief prayers for the victims, including many supporters of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Remember when this kind of thing was science fiction? From AP, July 16:

Pilotless Robot Bomber Squadron Heads for Afghanistan, Iraq
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.

Police fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of protesters from reaching the venue of an international Guelaguetza folk festival in Oaxaca July 16, in the worst outbreak of violence in the conflicted southern Mexican city since November. Protesters hurled rocks and burned vehicles as they marched towards the stadium where the festival is slated to open July 23.

International inspectors July 15 confirmed that North Korea had shut down the nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon research facility, the fruit of a painstaking diplomatic effort in which the DPRK will immediately start receiving oil aid from South Korea. (WP, Reuters, July 12) The following day, a 6.8 earthquake in Niigata prefecture, Japan, caused a fire and leak of radioactive water into the sea at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), is the world's largest commercial nuclear plant. Japan has a fast-growing nuclear industry, with 55 plants operating and another 11 planned. Nuclear power currently provides a third of the country's energy, but Tokyo plans to boost this to 40%. The plans are opposed by environmentalists and local residents who say the government is inviting disaster by building so many reactors in a seismically unstable country. (The Independent, Reuters, July 17)

Some 5,000 Israelis participated in a march around Jerusalem's Temple Mount July 15, in a monthly event led by Orthodox Jewish groups dedicated to the rebuilding of a Jewish temple on the site. The march usually draws far smaller numbers, but this one was held just one week before the Ninth of Av, the Hebrew calendar date when the First and Second Temples were destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, respectively, a day of national mourning and fasting in Israel. (Israel Today, July 16) Meanwhile, in a bizarre reversal of recent controversies surrounding the Temple Mount, Jews protested an archaeological dig at the site approved by the Islamic overseers of the Haram al-Sharif. From the Jerusalem Post, July 15:

At least 85 people were killed and more than 180 injured by a car bomb and coordinated truck bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk July 16. One car bomb exploded in a crowded market near an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the second went off in a commercial area. Later, a third bomber driving a Volkswagen Passat attacked a police patrol in southern Kirkuk, killing one police officer and seriously wounding 10 others. Many victims were women and children shopping in the busy street market. The attacks come amid rising ethnic tensions in Kirkuk, which is 60 miles west of Sulaymaniyah, the largest city in the PUK-controlled region of Kurdistan. Kurds have aggressively moved into Kirkuk since the 2003 invasion, angering Turkmen and Arab residents who fear PUK designs to annext the oil-rich city. (Al-Bawaba, Jordan; NYT, July 16)

With more than 70 killed in bombings over the weekend, Pakistan appears to be lurching towards civil war in the aftermath of the Red Mosque attack. A suicide bomber killed at least 26, including six police, and wounded over 50 others July 15 at a police recruitment center at DeraIsmail Khan in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) near the Afghan border. That same day, militants in North Waziristan, one of the NWFP's autonomous Tribal Areas, announced they are ending a 10-month-old cease-fire accord with the government. Follwing the Red Mosque raid last week, al-Qaeda's number-two man Ayman al-Zawahri called for jihad against the Pakistan government, which has sent thousands of troops into remote areas to try to keep a lid on rirsing popular anger. (Xinhua, LAT, July 16)

From Northern California's Redding Record-Searchlight, July 13, via BoingBoing.net, which notes "The D.E.A. working with National Guard troops and Blackhawk helicoptors set upon Shasta County, California this week to deal with the domestic terror threat of... pot growers":